UW Women's Basketball | Huskies women fall to Weber State, 77-66

OGDEN, Utah — After just two games, it's not yet time for the Washington women's basketball team to hit the panic button, but it might be time for some concern.

Redshirt sophomore forward Caitlin Anderson scored 22 points and pulled down 10 rebounds on Wednesday night to lead Weber State to a 77-66 women's basketball victory over the Huskies (0-2) at the Dee Events Center.

"Give credit to Weber State; they played hard," Washington coach Tia Jackson said. "We had some bright spots, things that we can build off of."

What makes the loss worse for UW is that Weber State (1-1) was coming off a season-opening 96-47 loss to Nebraska.

Junior forward/center Laura McLellan was one of the few bright spots for the Huskies.

McLellan saw just three minutes of court time in the first half after being saddled with two early fouls, but scored all of her career-high 17 points in the second half. She hit 7 of 11 shots from the field and collected six rebounds after the break, nearly single-handedly keeping Washington within striking distance.

It was the second straight game that McLellan had a career-high scoring night after getting 16 in the 64-59 season-opening loss to Gonzaga.

"We need to work on our defensive rebounding," McLellan said. "That's something that has hurt us."

Washington outrebounded Weber State 44-43, but the Wildcats came up with big rebounds at critical points. Weber State scored 20 second-chance points off their 15 offensive rebounds. Washington's only lead came after Heidi McNeill's free throws put the Huskies up 5-4. Weber State responded with a pair of free throws and back-to-back three-pointers to take a 12-5 lead and they never looked back.

McNeill, a senior forward, was another of the Huskies' bright spots as she notched her first career double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

The not-so-bright spot for Washington was its dismal 10-of-34 shooting in the first half.

"We moved Caitlin Anderson to [power forward] because we wanted to go with a smaller lineup," Weber State coach Carla Taylor said. "We wanted someone that could post up or shoot from the perimeter to try and create a mismatch."

Anderson, who normally plays small forward, had 11 in each half.

WASHINGTON 0-2
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
McNeill	33	3-6	5-6	8-12	1	0	11
Whitcomb	27	3-13	2-3	1-3	1	1	8
McLellan	19	7-12	3-3	2-6	2	3	17
Kingma	24	0-11	4-6	1-2	0	3	4
Morton	25	3-5	2-2	1-3	2	1	8
Romeo	10	1-3	1-2	0-0	2	1	4
Augustavo	11	1-3	0-0	0-2	0	1	2
Rozier	3	0-2	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Barlow	7	2-2	0-0	1-1	0	1	4
Argens	8	1-2	0-1	0-2	0	4	2
Williams	16	1-4	0-0	3-7	0	2	2
Mosiman	17	2-5	0-1	3-3	3	3	4
	200	24-68	17-24	20-44	11	20	66

Percentages: FG .353, FT .708. Three-point goals: 1-15, (Whitcomb 0-4, Kingma 0-4, Morton 0-2, Romeo 1-2, Augustavo 0-2, Mosiman 0-1). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 1, (Mosiman). Turnovers: 16, (McNeill 4, McLellan, Morton 4, Romeo, Augustavo, Barlow, Argens, Williams, Mosiman 2). Steals: 11, (Whitcomb 3, McLellan, Kingma 2, Rozier 2, Barlow, Argens 2).

WEBER STATE 1-1
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Anderson	28	9-15	2-2	4-10	1	2	22
Al.Thorderson	19	2-10	2-2	3-5	0	4	8
O'Neill	19	1-2	2-6	2-6	1	3	4
Ab.Thorderson	11	0-4	0-0	0-0	1	1	0
Schnibbe	37	4-13	7-8	0-4	8	2	16
Conner	30	6-9	4-7	1-6	3	3	18
Mohre	10	0-1	0-0	0-0	1	0	0
Smith	4	0-0	0-0	1-1	0	0	0
Weight	21	2-2	0-0	1-2	0	1	4
Roberson	21	1-4	2-2	1-6	3	2	5
	200	25-60	19-27	15-43	18	18	77

Percentages: FG .417, FT .704. Three-point goals: 8-25, (Anderson 2-3, Al.Thorderson 2-8, Ab.Thorderson 0-4, Schnibbe 1-3, Conner 2-4, Roberson 1-3). Team rebounds: 1. Blocked shots: 0. Turnovers: 20, (Anderson 2, Al.Thorderson 2, Ab.Thorderson 2, Schnibbe 4, Conner 3, Mohre 2, Weight, Roberson 3). Steals: 6, (Anderson, Ab.Thorderson 2, Schnibbe, Conner, Roberson).

Washington	32	34	—	66
Weber State	40	37	—	77

Attendance: 377. Officials: Bob Scofield, Michelle Russi, Kyle Bacon. Technical fouls: None.